God, Pratt and an Old Trafford Classic

Manchester, you will have noticed, is the city that has seen 99% of press coverage over the international break, and for all the wrong reasons. But let’s turn our attention to the red side of town as we travel there to resume our floundering Premier League campaign.

Whatever you might think about the financial shenanigans at City, there is no denying that United are a proper football club. I hesitate to sound too positive when speaking about a rival of such significance but there is no denying it. The club of Bobby Charlton, Alex Ferguson, the Munich Disaster and Ron Atkinson (oh, hang on a minute…)

This week’s fixture at Manchester United is the 140th time the two clubs have played competitive matches in my lifetime, out of a total of 207 in all. It is one measure of how old I am that I have lived through roughly two thirds of all matches between the two clubs.

The first of these wins was a 5-1 victory inspired by Greaves and Gilzean on 16th October 1965. Unsurprisingly I was still filling my nappy and feeding from my mother at this point so the match would have passed me by. I’m pretty sure my father will have been in attendance.

Two years later Pat Jennings scored against United in the charity shield. It was the eighth minute of the game, played at Old Trafford, and it put Spurs 2-0 up. We failed to hold onto the lead, the game ended 3-3 and the shield was shared. 

Of all of those 139 matches there is one in particular that stands out in my memory and it was not played in Bilbao (that one being historically significant but, let’s be honest, a dire game of football).

Like the charity shield match that preceded it by 13 years, and also taking place at Old Trafford, the match I would like to take you back to was in part notable because of the goalkeeping position.

It was 9th January 1980 and 53,762 people were in attendance to watch an FA Cup Third Round Replay. As a young season ticket holder I feel sure I would have been at the first game, just four days previously. On that day an Ardiles opener early in the second half was cancelled out just a few minutes later by a Sammy McIlroy penalty and it was all back to Old Trafford.

Although not me.

During the intervening days I must have travelled down to the South Coast because I have a very distinct memory of watching the replay at my Grandfathers chalet bungalow in Mudeford, near Christchurch. I used to love travelling down to visit him during the school holidays. He would spoil me rotten. 

Historical records confirm that match highlights were shown on Sportsnight. The programme must have started very soon after the match finished because the game went to extra time.

One of two defining moments of what would become an iconic match occurred around the hour mark. Spurs goalkeeper Milija Aleksic went up for an aerial challenge against United’s centre forward, Joe Jordan. It is still a matter of conjecture whether the Spurs man leaving the field on a stretcher with a broken jaw was the result of an accident or a malicious act. Those who recall Jordan might suspect the latter. Regardless, what happened next was truly remarkable.

With no goalkeepers on the bench in those days, the only option was to put an outfield player in goal and bring on a substitute. To the astonishment of the travelling Spurs faithful, who should be seen pulling on the gloves but our very best outfield player, Glenn Hoddle. And who should replace him in the midfield? John Pratt.

I think it is fair to say that this turn of events would not have acted in our favour. Much as I respect the service that the substitute that day gave to the club, there were many Spurs fans at the time who considered his surname an apt description. And it was not his fault that the man he was deputising for so he could stand between the sticks was nothing short of a footballing genius. Or God, as the atheists amongst us would happily describe him.

Despite United’s attempts to intimidate the deity in goal, the match reached 90 minutes goalless.

The second notable moment of the match is seared in my memory. It’s funny how this can happen but I remember the moment like it was last night, not 46 years ago. I recall where I was sitting in my Grandad’s living room, where the TV was and even the camera angle that captured the moment.

With three minutes of extra time left and another replay looming - there were no penalty shoot-outs in those days - our two Argentinian imports combined. After a lofted cross from (maybe not such a) Pratt broke to Villa in the box, he laid it off to Ardiles who had found a pocket of space on the edge of the area. With a delightful curling shot across the keeper the little man found the side net and a famous victory was secured.

Last week I had a chat with Jim on Oh So Spurs (you can watch it here) and I made the point that the great matches we recall are often as much about us and our lives at the time they happened as the games themselves. A glorious cup replay of 1980 played in Manchester and watched by an excited fourteen year old in his grandad’s living room in Dorset is a fine example of what I was talking about.

What was your most memorable Spurs v United match?

Andrew Pettifer is the author of two Spurs books "When the Final Whistle Blows; Glory, Grief and Tottenham Hotspur"  and the follow up "Two Tribes: Community, Big Tech and Tottenham Hotspur"